Book Review: A Place Both Wonderful and Strange

From its start, when studio executives drafted a plan to recoup costs after what they predicted would be the series' inevitable failure, to the 1992 prequel movie that earned scathing reviews at Cannes, to its unexpected and acclaimed return some twenty-five years later, Twin Peaks garnered millions of devoted fans who refused to let it die.

In A Place Both Wonderful and Strange, entertainment reporter Scott Meslow takes readers behind the curtain of Lynch’s and Frost’s dedication to finishing what they started, with both the prequel film and Showtime’s Twin Peaks: The Return, offering dozens of original and revelatory interviews that cast a whole new light on the extraordinary show. For a series that left as many questions unanswered as answered, Meslow’s deep reporting will give readers a new perspective, detailing scenes left on the cutting–room floor and how Season Two’s finale stunned and infuriated studio execs in what Mark Frost calls “a defiant middle finger to what they [studio executives] thought the show should be.”

Book Review: Freaks, Gleeks, and Dawson's Creek

The modern television landscape is defined by influential and ambitious shows for and about teenagers. Groundbreaking series like Euphoria, Sex Education, and Pen15 dominate awards season and lead the way when it comes to progressive, diverse, and creative storytelling. So how did we get here from Beverly Hills, 90210?

In Freaks, Gleeks, and Dawson’s Creek, entertainment journalist Thea Glassman takes readers behind the scenes of seven of the most culturally significant series of the last three decades, drawing on dozens of new interviews with showrunners, cast, crewmembers, and more. These shows not only launched the careers of such superstars as Will Smith, Michael B. Jordan, Claire Danes, and Seth Rogen, but they also took young people seriously, proving that teen TV could be smart, revolutionary, and “important”—and stay firmly entrenched in pop culture long after it finished airing. And while many critics insist that prestige dramas like The Sopranos and Mad Men paved the way for television, some of the most groundbreaking work was actually happening inside the fictional hallways of high schools across America in teen shows whose impact remains visible on our screens today.